Fighting ‘Fascism’ Isn’t the Way to Stop Putin

ByStephen Sestanovich

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an Orthodox Easter service in Moscow on May 4.

REUTERS

Suddenly the F-word is everywhere. I mean the other one: Fascism.

I’ve almost gotten used to it in Russian propaganda, which now routinely refers to Ukrainians who want to hold their country together as “fascists.” (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s American sympathizers have obediently picked up the term; I got several doses of it from callers this week on C-Span’s Washington Journal.)

Serious scholars are tossing it around, too. Easily the most brilliant writing to date on the Ukraine crisis is Yale history professor Timothy Snyder’s article, “This Battle Means Everything,” in the May 26 issue of the New Republic. He finds fascist ideas on the rise in Russia—and in Russian foreign policy.

There is no point pretending that fascism is not part of modern politics. It is. And because it gains strength in times of social and economic dislocation—like ours—we need to understand it when we see it. The Snyder piece is a model of such analysis. But two cautions:

First, has any debate ever been improved by comparisons to Hitler? It’s the one type of name-calling certain to drive people crazy. We see that happening in Ukraine. The debate about who is a fascist has been part of the political hysteria that may eventually make that country ungovernable.

A second reason to be sparing with the F-bomb is more subtle. The label makes us think we’re talking about politicians and political movements ready for Armageddon. Fascists love throwing themselves on funeral pyres—they seem impossible to deter by ordinary means. But that’s not Mr. Putin (and my guess is it’s not Narendra Modi, the likely new Indian prime minister, either). Mr. Putin often miscalculates–but he does calculate. He wants to get his way in Ukraine without paying too high a price. If Europe and the U.S. can convince him that the price will be very, very high, he can still be stopped. Saying we’re up against fascism makes that harder to see.

Stephen Sestanovich, a professor at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of “Maximalist: America in the World From Truman to Obama.”

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